Pope Francis just announced a new policy on child molestation. The press is describing this as a rule requiring priests and nuns to report abuse, which sounds great. And it is great. Francis has been in his post for six years, so the promulgation of the new policy is long overdue. But this is an unprecedented and impressive step.

Conversely, the press is overstating the magnitude of the change. What the policy actually says is that if nuns or priests have a "well-founded motive to believe" that someone has abused a child, s/he must report their suspicions to their superiors in the church. This is a far cry from what is needed. First, rather than requiring line workers to report any allegation of abuse, the new rule asks them initially to decide if they find the charges credible--which, of course, the clergy are not trained to do. Second, the reports will be to the priests' and nuns' superiors in the RCC, and those superiors can disregard those reports if they want. Finally, the new policy imposes no responsibility to report either actual or potential abuse to law enforcement authorities.

So what we have is a statement of intent. The church still acts as if abuse is an internal affair; it still holds itself above the law. That has to change. But for the first time the pope has stated that it intends to take child abuse seriously, which is significant progress.

It will be interesting to see how Francis's opponents in the hierarchy react to this demarche. Did early word of the new policy contribute to his enemies' decision to go public last week? Is Francis trying to act on child molestation to gain public support for his campaign against the conservatives? In short, was the new policy motivated solely by concern for children?

They need to call the local police immediately upon discovery of anything suspicious.

Forget reporting up and determining if there is a motive. They just don't get it.

Previously they reported up and superiors made the decisions. This still sounds internal and they have zero credibility for how they do things internally. I don't see any change at all requiring them to immediately contact law enforcement THEN inform superiors. Put the child's safety first over the Church, dammit!

Yup.

This is a good statement of intent, but any suspicions should go straight to the police, not to the church. The church has a compelling incentive to conceal anything it possibly can. Ultimately the church has to be disintermediated: anything short of that is inadequate.

What's so hard about realizing what the "motive" is? I'll clue them in what the motive is and it doesn't take a nun to know this.

The motive is they are opportunists who found an organization built for them to pass around kids and priests internally.

dagny Wrote:
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> They need to call the local police immediately
> upon discovery of anything suspicious.

YES!

Get it out of the circled wagons that are always in place within every single organization.

It won't solve everything but gotz to get it out of the bubble, whether that is LDS, Catholic, BSA, Miramax Films, orphanages, etc.!

It is little more than acknowledging there is a problem because they can't deny anymore...

I would say it's a start, but its entirely inadequate unless the superiors are required to report it to the relevant civil authorities.

I've read a bit more about the new policy and it turns out that the church wants to protect "the good name" of both the accusers and the accused. In other words, the church is going to conceal the identities of priests and others who may have molested children.

So we have a "law," which is only a church law; decisions by untrained and interested clergy about whether accusations are "well founded; reporting not to the civil authorities but to the church; and the church going out of its way to protect the "good name" of the accused. That represents almost no change from the status quo.

My initial impression of the new policy was too generous. Francis hasn't addressed the fundamental problems.